We will continue to have to pay all our bills in Japan while we are visiting the U.S. Having looked at our budget, we are able to guarantee $3000 from our income, but we will need to raise everything beyond that, which leaves about $22,300 we need to raise.
As you can see, the two biggest expenses are plane tickets and a rental car. The plane ticket prices can’t be avoided. Prices have skyrocketed since we moved to Japan, and for five people it is simply going to be expensive, no matter what we do. Of course, the sooner we can buy the tickets, the safer we are from price increases.
However, the car rental cost is something we are hoping we can mitigate significantly. We have looked at some options for missionaries, but availability is very low (especially for a 5-person vehicle) and the pick-up / drop-off locations make this untentable – at least from what we have found so far. If anyone has any ideas they can offer us to help lower this cost, we would be more than happy to consider them! If someone has a car they would be willing to let us use, that would be the best option financially and we would be deeply grateful. But of course we understand that may not be possible. If we end up having to rent a car, the price above is what we must prepare for.
We are very grateful for any amount of support you can offer!